Flexible conduits, hoses and tubes are known in many fields. Flexible conduits are frequently used as part of a fluid system, the garden hose being a well-known example. One improvement to these known flexible conduits has been the inclusion of configurable joints along the length of the conduit. In a typical configurable conduit, a series of segments are joined at ball-and-socket joints. The friction between the ball element and socket element helps hold adjacent segments in a particular orientation. In addition, the close running fit between these elements ostensibly acts as a fluid sealing surface to minimize leakage.
Configurable flexible conduits of this type are used in many application. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 6,164,570 shows a ball-and-socket hose construction fur use in household plumbing. A similar apparatus is implemented as a hands-free drinking system in U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,729. Rather than using the flexible conduit for conveying liquids, U.S. Pat. No. 5,197,767 contemplates a configurable conduit for concealing and protecting cables, wires, hoses and the like. A flexible configurable tube design is used as part of a movable limb for a doll in U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,352, and as a vacuum cleaner hose in U.S. Pat. No. 5,778,939.
The wide versatility of the flexible configurable conduit can be readily appreciated from these examples. Most of these devices utilize a ball-and-socket joint between multiple links or segments. In the typical case, the individual segments are formed independently and then snapped together. In more complicated constructs, various fastening rings or flanges are required to connect the joint components, and consequently the individual links, together.
One detriment inherent with many of these prior approaches is that the articulating joint is not fluid-tight. Thus, the prior ball-and-socket snap-fit devices are usually limited to low pressure applications or uses where a little fluid leakage does not pose a problem. In some prior devices, the leakage problem is addressed by the inclusion of a seal ring or gasket to the ball-and-socket joint, which necessarily adds cost and complexity of production.
Even where the configurable conduit is not being used to carry a fluid, the prior devices suffer from the additional detriment of requiring piece-by-piece, or link-by-link, assembly. In other words, the links are first produced in a molding or casting process, or similar operation. Then the individual links are snapped together, usually manually, which makes production of any significant length of configurable flexible conduit unwieldy and expensive.
Another detriment of the flexible conduits mentioned above is that the links can be pulled apart, often more easily than when the links are snapped together. Inadvertent and unexpected disassembly of the conduit can range from simply a nuisance, such as where the conduit is used to shield a cable, to a potential disaster, such as where the conduit is part of a home plumbing system.
Therefore, there is a need for a flexible configurable conduit that addresses the many detriments of prior attempts at conduits of this type. More specifically, there is a need for a conduit that can be more easily and cheaply produced, that are not prone to inadvertent disassembly and that maintain a fluid-tight connection at the conduit joints.